Democracy it being strangled it seems by self interest and misplaced loyalties. Only months after the Blagger Blagojevic scandal and President Obama's difficulty in finding people who were not crooks to fill the financial offices in his administation we now have in Britain the scandal of Members of Parlament fiddling there expenses.

As in many things we British cannot quite manage to do things on the same scale as America.While we all sit back to watch the news and enjoy the witch hunt of Labour ministers over their eccies, from Jaqui Smith’s 89p bath plug to Barbara Follet’s £25k of security, we should not overlook some of the bizarre items that are turning up in Conservative MP’s claims.

One Tory, we hear, claimed for plastic bags from the supermarket – surely an item that shoots down Dave Cameron’s green pretensions. Boggart Bloomers’ favourite though is the guy who claimed for a sack of manure for the garden of his second home.

Why would a conservative need to buy a bag o’shite to spread on his garden? He could simply have walked round it himself.

The latest expose we hear is the story of a senior Conservative MP, Shadow Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan who claimed on her second home expenses for dog food.

Boggart Blog’s insider at conservative Central Office informs us that while the party’s official line is no rules have been broken but Ms. Gillan has agreed to get a dog.

Sir Michael Spicer (Con, Rawtenborough South) successfully claimed the cost of having a chandelier hung at his Manor House which he insists is his second home despite its having been in the family for about 3,000 years.

Sir Michael also claimed £5,600 over a period of nine months for “gardening costs.” The claim is insufficiently detailed for us to discern how much of this was due to labour costs and how much he paid per Bag O’Shite.

James Arbuthnot (aka The Hon. James Nigel Jeremy Rupert Ponsonby–Twat Arbuthnot claimed £2,700 last year for work on trees. Asked if he was aware of the rule stating: “Claims must only be made for expenditures necessary to enable members to perform their duties properly,” Arbuthnot told our reporter: How dare you question me, you despicable little oik, shouldn’t you be down a coal mine or something?”

The worst case of abuse of the system so far however is the claim submitted by Douglas Hogg, agriculture secretary in the last Conservative Government. He expected us poor taxpayers to pay for having the moat, YES, MOAT!!! around his castle cleaned.

When challenged by a Boggart Blog reporter about how he could possibly think this was a legitimate expense, this is what he said:

“Of course it is fair, Since this wretched Labour government abolished fox hunting the local meet have had to hunt chavs instead. After the hunt they throw the dead bodies in the moat. The stink is becoming intolerable.”

Taxpayers also forked out for “maintenance work in the stables of Hogg’s country home which brings us nicely back to the Bag O’Shite issue.